Saturday Night Live cast members have a difficult time making critically acclaimed non-comedic movies. Being seen for so long as the top tier of the comedic talent, these people often get type cast into extensions of their SNL characters. Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig are two of SNL’s most distinguished alumni, in part because of the breadth and depth of characters both actors can play. Their megatalents are tested and confirmed with the Skeleton Twins, a drama/comedy about a brother and sister trying to move on with their lives. Hader and Wiig use their chemistry to banter effortlessly, and walk the tonal line better than most other Hollywood thespians would be capable.
Maggie (Kristen Wiig) starts the movie visiting Milo (Bill Hader) after her brother tries to commit suicide. After a 10 year separation, Milo agrees to move back to upstate New York from LA with his sister and her husband Lance (Luke Wilson). This move forces both siblings to confront their pasts and futures: Maggie is reluctant to start a family with Lance and Milo confronts his old teacher Rich (Ty Burrell).
The Skelton Twins establishes its power with lies. Most people have some sort of lie they tell themselves each day to hide the pain of confronting a messy problem, and these damaged leads in the Skeleton Twins harbor a web of lies. The problem with lies is the tangles: instead of Maggie talking to Lance about her fear of starting a family, she takes birth control and lashes out at Lance both directly and indirectly. This leads to Maggie’s embarrassment at her own shortcomings and frustration toward Lance for not realizing what is going on. Eventually, that frustration and embarrassment untangles the web, leading to an outburst of emotion from the insular Maggie further hurting the situation by deflecting their problems through cheap character attacks. Milo has a similar situation with Rich and himself not confronting their pasts. The Skeleton Twins effectively flips the switch from happy-go-lucky to dark when a lie threatens to reveal itself, and the screenplay bravely goes to some dark, dark low points.
Fear not, movie watchers, for you cannot spell “Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig” without SNL. To balance the dark, some scenes were probably outlined to let the stars banter like they probably did in real life. A scene in a dentist’s office had me near tears in laughter and the lip sync from the trailer is hilarious. These scenes provide the necessary levity among the very sad subject matter, but they also show how the twins help one another untangle their own webs. When the people in their lives fail to understand them, the twins have the innate ability to understand what is going on and provide support. That lip sync is hilarious, but it happens as Maggie digs herself a deeper hole and Milo is there to make her laugh.
More than a little range and depth is expected from Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. Both are up to the task: Wiig proved in Bridesmaids she can play the sad with the funny well; she dials down Maggie to a slow boil of anger, letting it come out when she drinks or gets found out. Hader is the wild card here, but he surpasses even the talented Wiig as Milo. Hader gets to effectively develop three relationships in this film, Rich, Lance, and Maggie, all very nuanced, complicated and unique. Milo can be childish, sad, angry, affectionate, and inquisitive at any one moment, and Hader gets it all right. Luke Wilson does more with a thankless role than I would have expected, probably helped by his relationship and chemistry with the two leads. Ty Burrell and Joanna Gleeson don’t get enough screen time for their subplots, but are fine enough.
As Autumn descends on the world, the Skeleton Twins opens in theatres. Both have some beauty and charm, but there is an undercurrent of death and sadness that threatens as the winter approaches. Thankfully, autumn in upstate New York has Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig to coax us through the season. And Luke Wilson to coach us to climb up a rock wall.